Dudley Digges (abt. 1583 - 1639)

Born about 1583 in Kent, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Kempe) Digges — married 1605 in England

Descendants

Died 18 Mar 1639 at about age 56 in England

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Biography

Dudley Digges is a Qualifying Ancestor of the Jamestowne Society

Birth, Parents and Education

Dudley was the son of Thomas Digges and Anne St Leger.^[1][2][3] He was said to be 17 when he was admitted to university in 1600,^[4] pointing to a birth date of about 1583. He may have been born in Kent, where his father had his main property. He was the godson of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,^[5] and this is likely to be the reason for his first name.

Dudley matriculated at University College, London on 16 July 1600, and was awarded a BA on 1 July 1601.^[4][5][6] (Douglas Richardson mistakenly says the College was Christ Church.^[1][2])

Marriage and Children

Dudley married Mary Kempe, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Kempe of Kent^[3] and Dorothy Thompson,^[1][2] in 1605.^[5] They had the following children:

• Thomas,^[1][2][3][4] baptised at Wye, Kent on 30 August 1609.^[7][8]
• John^[1][2][3]
• Dudley^[1][2][3][4]
• Francis^[1][2]
• Edward,^[1][2] baptised at Chilham, Kent on 24 March 1621.^[9][10] (Douglas Richardson wrongly gives the date as 29 March 1621;^[1][2] so does the Jamestowne Society website.^[11])
• Leonard^[1][2]
• Herbert^[1][2]
• Richard^[1][2]
• Anne,^[3] who married Anthony Hammond and George Juxon^[1][2]
• Elizabeth,^[3] who married Arnold Brayning^[1][2]
• Mary^[1][2]

Career

By 1602 Dudley was in the household of John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[6]

Soon after his marriage in 1605, Dudley spent time in mainland Europe. Shortly after his return, he was knighted,^[5] in April 1607.^[12]

From 1609 to his death Dudley held a number of appointments relating to Kent and Sussex.^[6]

In 1610 Dudley was elected Member of Parliament for Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. He represented the constituency in the successive parliaments up and including that of 1626. In 1628 he represented Kent in Parliament as a Knight of the Shire.^[6]

Early in his parliamentary career Dudley found himself in the first of a number of controversies with royal administration. He argued against taxes that he considered a major threat to mercantile interests. The Privy Council subsequently ordered him to destroy his papers on the subject.^[5][6]

There were rumours in 1611 that Dudley was being considered as a possible ambassador to the Spanish Netherlands. He is known to have unsuccessfully sought appointment as an Ambassador to the Hague in 1613 and to Venice in 1614.^[6]

In 1613 he was made a member of the High Commission, an ecclesiastical court.^[5][6]

On 2 February 1617/8 Dudley was one of a set of people given honorary admission to Gray's Inn on the presentation of "Henry, Prince of Purpoole" (the "Lord of Misrule" of Gray's Inn).^[5][13]

From 1618 Dudley was a Gentleman of James I's Privy Chamber.^[6] That year he was appointed Ambassador to Russia:^[14] credentials from James I were dated 31 May.^[15] The main purpose of the mission was to deliver a loan of £20,000 to Tsar Michael, who, refusing to accept the conditions of the loan, seized half the money from Dudley's emissary: Dudley returned to England with the other half. The gardener and naturalist John Tradescant was in his entourage, and wrote a record of his travels.^[5]

In the early 1620s Dudley used the House of Commons to attack monopolies granted by the Crown. One of his targets, who held a monopoly relating to inns, described him as a "Tewkesbury-mustard burgess".^[6]

In 1622 Dudley was appointed to a commission to enquire into the government of Ireland, and was briefly a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. On his return he was active in parliamentary debates on international, religious and trade affairs.^[6]

Dudley's most important controversy with the Crown was in the mid-to-late 1620s. Having failed to secure advancement through the favour of Charles I's favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Dudley turned to leading parliamentary attacks on him, and opened a parliamentary conference on Buckingham's impeachment.^[16] This led to a few days in prison in 1626, and although he kissed Charles I's hand afterwards, two fairly minor official appointments were revoked, and a further short spell in prison followed.^[5][6][17] He was ordered to be released on 23 February 1627.^[18] He continued to argue against arbitrary royal government.^[6]

He did, though, seek a degree of reconciliation with Charles I, and by late 1628 there were again rumours that he might be given an ambassadorship. Nothing materialised. In 1630 he bought the reversion of the office of Master of the Rolls,^[19][20] a senior judicial position which he occupied in 1636. His legal credentials were weak; he strengthened them by becoming a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1631, and from that year he was a Master in the Court of Chancery.^[5][6]

Trading and Colonial Interests

For much of his life Dudley had trading and colonial interests.

• In 1609 he was one of those listed in the Second Charter of the Virginia Company,^[21] of which he was a stockholder.^[11]
• He interested himself in the search for a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.^[6] In 1612 he was a founder of a company established for trading via the Passage.^[5]
• In 1614 he was an unsuccessful candidate for a governorship of the East India Company.Two years later, in 1615, he published a defence of the Company's monopoly. In 1620 he and the Company's President went to the Dutch Republic in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve disputes with the Dutch East India Company. He subsequently sought to realise his investment in the Company, because of the costs he had incurred in rebuilding Chilham Castle, but his request was refused.^[5]
• In the 1620s he argued for the creation of a West Indies Company; in 1637 he was an adviser on the possible formation of such a company.^[5]

Chilham Castle, Kent

After the death of his father-in-law in 1610, his sisters-in-law transferred their interest in Chilham Castle, Kent to Dudley and his wife. Dudley replaced the building with a new mansion.^[5]

Death

Dudley died on 18 March 1638/9. He was buried at Chilham, Kent^[5] on 23 March.^{[1][2][22][23]} A fairly lengthy and flattering monumental inscription, which makes no reference to the controversies of parts of his political career, records his death date.^[24] Inquisitions Post Mortem were held in 16 Charles I (1640-1).^[25] His death place is not known: the most likely places are Chilham, where he had his main residence, and London, where he was often active.

Dudley's Will included provision for an annual foot-race, open to both women and men, in the area of his property at Faversham, Kent, which continued until towards the end of the 18th century.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. II, pp. 82-83, DIGGES 14, Google Books
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. III, pp. 105-106, GRANDISON 13
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Robert Hovenden (ed.). The Visitation of Kent taken in the years 1619-1621, Harleian Society, 1898, p. 65, Internet Archive
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Joseph Foster. Alumni Oxonienses, Vol. I, 1891, James Parker and Co, pp. 403-404, Internet Archive
5. ↑ ^{5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by Sean Kelsey for 'Digges, Sir Dudley (1582/3–1639)', print and online 2004
6. ↑ ^{6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13} History of Parliament Online, entry for 'DIGGES, Sir Dudley (1583-1639), of Philip Lane, London and Chilham Castle, Kent'
7. ↑ "England, Kent, Canterbury Parish Registers, 1538-1986," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGNJ-PR4M : 12 March 2020), Thomas Digges, 30 Aug 1609; from " Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d); citing Baptism, Wye, Kent, England, United Kingdom, Citing Canterbury Cathedral Archives, England
8. ↑ Canterbury Cathedral Archives, U3/174/1/A2, FindMyPast
9. ↑ "England, Kent, Canterbury Parish Registers, 1538-1986," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6DW3-X1XC : 1 December 2021), Edward Digge, 24 Mar 1621; from " Kent, Canterbury Archdeaconry Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1913," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d); citing Baptism, Chilham, Kent, England, Citing Canterbury Cathedral Archives, England
10. ↑ Canterbury Cathedral Archives, ref. U3/191/1/1, Kent baptisms, FindMyPast and linked parish register image
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} Jamestowne Society website, Dvorak-Doggett, accessed 17 March 2023
12. ↑ W A Shaw. The Knights of England, Vail. II, Sherratt and Hughes, 1906, p. 142, Internet Archive
13. ↑ Joseph Foster. The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889, Hansard Publishing Union, 1889. p. 148, Internet Archive
14. ↑ 'James 1 - volume 97: April 1618', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: James I, 1611-18, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1858), pp. 532-538, British History Online (entries for 6 and 29 April), accessed 19 March 2023
15. ↑ The National Archives, ref. PRO 22/60/25, Discovery Centre catalogue entry
16. ↑ 'Charles I - volume 26: May 1-13, 1626', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625-26, ed. John Bruce (London, 1858), pp. 324-333, British History Online (entry for 8 May), accessed 19 March 2023
17. ↑ 'Charles I - volume 47: January 1-8, 1627', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1627-28, ed. John Bruce (London, 1858), pp. 1-9, British History Online (entry for 2 January 1627), accessed 19 March 2023
18. ↑ 'Charles I - volume 54: February 15-23, 1627', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1627-28, ed. John Bruce (London, 1858), pp. 55-65, British History Online, accessed 19 March 2023
19. ↑ 'Charles I - volume 531: November 1630', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1625-49 Addenda, ed. William Douglas Hamilton and Sophie Crawford Lomas (London, 1897), pp. 381-385, British History Online, accessed 19 March 2023
20. ↑ 'Charles I - volume 187: March 19-31, 1631', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1629-31, ed. John Bruce (London, 1860), pp. 543-563, British History Online, accessed 19 March 2023
21. ↑ The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609, Yale Law School website, accessed 19 March 2023
22. ↑ Kent, England, Tyler Index to Parish Registers, 1538-1874, Ancestry.co.uk
23. ↑ "England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J8VB-K4N : 18 February 2023), Sir Dudly Diggs, 1639
24. ↑ 'Some Monumental Inscriptions of Chilham Church, noted by Rev Bryan Faussett, 1757', Kent Archaeological Society website, accessed 19 March 2023
25. ↑ The National Archives, ref. C 142/603/88, Discovery Centre catalogue entry

• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 15, pp. 68-69, entry for 'DIGGES, Sir DUDLEY (1583–1639)', Wikisource
• Chalmers, Alexander. The General Biographical Dictionary, Vol. XII, 1813 (London), pp. 84-86, Internet Archive
• Annie Lash Jester in collaboration with Martha Woodruff Hiden. Adventurers of Purse and Person, Princeton University Press, 1956, pp. 154-155, Familysearch
• Wikipedia: Dudley Digges
• Digges Crest

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Michael Cayley on 19 March 2023.

Dudley Digges appears in trails from Gateway Ancestor Edward Digges to Magna Carta Surety Barons Saher de Quincy and Robert de Vere that were badged by the Magna Carta Project in June 2015. This profile is also in trails that were later identified and badged from Edward Digges to the following surety barons: Hugh le Bigod, Roger le Bigod, Gilbert de Clare, Richard de Clare, John FitzRobert, and John de Lacy. In addition, this profile is in a Richardson-documented trail from Edward Digges to surety baron Geoffrey de Say (Magna Carta Ancestry, vol. II, pages 78-83 DIGGES) which was badged in March 2023. All these trails are outlined in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".